Newsletter May 2025

The global economic landscape and its governments have become unpopular with low levels of approval ratings. Locally, the ruling party has under 30% approval ratings due to historic, unrelating, corruption and continued oversight on local government poor performance. This is important to take note-of because of the collaborative nature that is
needed to obtain high economic growth and productive output by both business and
government.

The state of the city address by Mayor Dada Morero in March 2025 is symbolic of the need and cry for greater collaboration between business, government and civil society. The Mayors opening statement cannot be far from that truth as it states … The people of Johannesburg legitimately are concerned about the City they call home. Our challenges are complex and we don’t have infinite resources. Alone we will not solve these challenges. Covid-19 alone set us back by 10 years. Every day we must listen and respond timeously to the voices of Joburgers.

The Randburg Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RCCI) responsibility within this, is to
facilitate these relationship building processes and bring business under one roof, defuse the noise and advocate for sound policy development and implementation. Our position,
although neutral, has its foundation rooted to serve its members, whilst allowing the space for government to deploy its mandate. All that business requires is sound policies, by laws,
services such as electricity, water, infrastructure, safety and a voice. This will allow for a
symbiotic relationship to be built, productivity to increase and economic development to
flourish.

Randburg city region is a major contributor to this collective effort and productivity as it holds a large industrial base.

There are key programmes and partnerships that the Mayor spoke that can be mentioned for the purpose of RCCI members and partnerships can aim to take advantage of due to their proximity to the region. The following projects are partnership make part of the Mayors delivery-:

• Coca-Cola Beverages South Africa activation programme that will help keep the City
  clean by rolling-out the ‘Grow My Business’ training curriculum to empower townshipbased entrepreneurs in retail and hospitality sectors.
• Taxi Associations in Johannesburg that will contribution in managing illegal street
  traders.
• Youth Chamber of Commerce and Industry Y20 launch. The program is focused on
  youth development by building innovation and entrepreneurship centres that will
  anchor Johannesburg’s transformation into one of Africa’s smart cities.
• Private Property Developers collaborative approach for the Carlswald Reservoir
  project, which was approved by the Mayoral Committee in March 2025.
• Steyn City R11.5 billion investment on bulk infrastructure such as roads, sewage,
  stormwater and electrical and gas reticulation.

In totality there are 10 capital-heavy projects that require sustainable Public Private
Partnerships (PPPs) to change the trajectory of the city through its economic transitioning process.

To enhance service delivery that Mayor has development a Turnaround Strategic Plan that will be the ambit of the Service Delivery War Room established in March 2025 in coagulation with a Bomb’Squad both established as high-power implementation impact teams. The
turnaround strategic plan aims to respond to the large work stream that lies ahead supported by the Presidential Package for the city’s 5 year growth plans.

Key to this workstream is the Implementation of the energy sustainability strategy that will
reduce reliance on conventional power and integrate new distributed energy generation and energy storage facilities into the energy mix. The City is aware of the high electricity tariffs industrial customers are paying. And because these customers are major employers of the City there needs to be greater focus and support for them so that they are sustainable and financially viable.

The City has allocated R3.03 billion over the Medium Term Revenue Expenditure Framework
(MTREF) to invest in eight of its most underserved areas: Diepsloot, Southern Farms, Ivory
Park/Kaalfontein, Orange Farm, Soweto, Riverlea, Zandspruit, and Eldorado Park.
In short, the Mayors speech is very strong in seeking a working relationship with the business community of Johannesburg as it aims for a 3% GDP growth over the medium term.

Furthermore, it falls upon the executive to collectively create a Joburg that is vibrant, safe,
including well-being of civil society and residents that must not go to bed hungry.